Keep on top of the latest in immigration law! Attend ILW.COM seminars! You can attend ILW.COM phone seminars from the convenience of your office! For more info on the seminars currently available, please click here: http://www.ilw.com/seminars/

DOL Memo To SWAs On GAL Checklist
Maria Flynn, Office of Policy Development and Research Administrator issued a memo to all SWAS providing a checklist of all cancelled and active General Administration Letters (GAL)(courtesy of Angelo A. Paparelli).

Attorney listings on ILW.COM are searched 200,000 times/year! Each attorney listed is searched an average of once each day! Just one new client will pay for the entire year's fee! Click here for more info: http://www.ilw.com/membership/

Help Wanted: Immigration AttorneyMicrosoft Corporation has an immediate opportunity to join our dynamic team in the law and corporate affairs department in Redmond, Washington. The position requires excellent academic credentials, 4-6 years experience in all nonimmigrant business visas, labor certifications, and other business-related immigration matters. Strong case management, communication and writing skills are required. Must be customer-service focused and able to thrive in a challenging and fast-paced environment. Prior experience managing legal staff and proficiency with Microsoft technology a plus. Microsoft offers a competitive salary, excellent benefits and casual workplace environment. Please submit your response in Word format to resume@microsoft.com. Please indicate job code N145-122703 in the subject line. Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer (EOE) and strongly supports diversity in the workplace.

Help Wanted: Immigration Attorney
For over 45 years, Jackson Lewis LLP, a national employment and
labor law firm has been exclusively representing management. Jackson Lewis seeks an immigration attorney in its Miami office for its immigration practice group. 7-10 years experience in employment based immigration law preferred. Candidate must have excellent communication (verbal + written skills) and case management experience. Send resume and
writing sample in confidence to Judi Sebastian by fax: 305-373-9966 or e-mail: sebastij@jacksonlewis.com. EOE.

Help Wanted: Immigration AttorneyConstangy, Brooks & Smith, LLC, a premier management labor and employment firm with 13 offices nationwide and approximately 100 attorneys, seeks immigration attorney with 5+ years experience to join our immigration practice. The position is based in our Atlanta, GA office. Candidate must have strong knowledge of business immigration law, including full range of nonimmigrant and immigrant petitions and labor certifications. The position requires excellent analytical, writing, and case management skills. Candidate must be highly motivated and detail oriented. Position involves extensive client contact. We offer a competitive salary and benefits package. Applicants should send resumes in confidence to: attorneyrecruiting@constangy.com.

We carry advertisements for Help Wanted: Attorney, Help Wanted: Paralegal, Help Wanted: Other, Positions Sought, Products & Services Offered, etc.
For information on advertising in the classifieds please click hereFor services/products of use in your law practice please click here

Readers are welcome to share their comments, email: editor@ilw.com (300-words or fewer preferred).

Dear Editor:In response to Mr. Murray's query, whether to file a labor certification now or "wait" for PERM is a non-issue. The NPRM on PERM in the Federal Register indicates that the coming of PERM ends nearly three decades of hard fought regulatory guidelines providing American employers with fairness in their efforts to immigrate workers. With PERM, there will be no: (1) business necessity to justify accurate and real job requirements; (2) loss of 5% wage factor that exists due to inherent inaccuracies of wage surveys; (3) mandatory recruitment requirements in excess of normal requirements for industry/employer; (4) new extensive record keeping requirements; (5) elimination of all job skills and experience allowed by decisional law obtained through employment with overseas affiliates, or other jobs with same employer; etc. There's a punitive structure that allows for no hearing, exceptions or justifiable explanations (e.g. company's records destroyed in fire) and mandate a finding of fraud against the employer for shortcomings. Maybe better processing times - maybe. Whether PERM comes is still a question. PERM will essentially strip current fair process from employers. There will be an option to convert to PERM for pending cases filed now, so what possible downside is there? The priority date, determined by filing date, controls when the person will be able to apply for their green card. If you wait and I don't, my cases will have an earlier priority date than yours. Even if DOL provides better processing under PERM, it will be irrelevant since the priority date will control in the end. With the return of quota cut-off dates of many years likely in certain EB categories, the one who files first will be better off than the one who files later even if the later case gets approved faster. File the labor certification now.

Peter Larabee

Dear Editor:Concerning Chucky's opinion, I need to highlight that
Congress just passed the Omnibus Appropriation Bill
that increases the H-1B cap by 20,000 for holders of
U.S master's degrees. Chucky will do better in looking
after the “American worker,” which sounds like a
buzzword from a Marxist manifesto, by supporting free
trade, less government spending and individual
responsibility. Free movement of workers is an
indispensable portion of this plan. The cases of Colin
Powell, son of Jamaican immigrants, of Czech-born
Madeleine Albright, or Genesio Morlacci, a poor unskilled Italian immigrant, give testimony of
the immigrant endeavor's potential. As expected, they represent the product of a country which had far less
bureaucratic barriers for hard-working immigrants than most nativists and neo-socialists would like to see.
Perhaps because they are unwilling do what it takes to compete.

Sebastian
Washington DC

Dear Editor:
Immigration Daily's subject "dates" are one day ahead of the day you send them out. Therefore it was confusing to receive today (November 22nd) an email dated today stating Congress is in session, considering among other things the H-1B cap exemption, when the fact is that Congress finished its deliberations yesterday.

Andrea Wisner

Dear Editor:
Why was the H-2B cap not raised as well in the legislation just sent to President Bush?
What can be done? Was the USCIS statistical 33K count that Immigration Daily reported on, a few days
earlier, a joke or a political move? What should H-2B employers do? For example, write letters, and if so, to whom?

Readers can share their professional announcements (100-words or less at no charge), email: editor@ilw.com.

New Address
The USCIS Washington District's Arlington Office will move to a new location on Friday November 26, 2004. The Office currently located at 4420 North Fairfax Drive will close to the public on Tuesday, November 23 and will remain closed through Monday, November 29. The new Washington District facility is located at 2675 Prosperity Avenue across from the Dunn Loring stop of the Orange Line of the Metro. The USCIS Washington District Office provides services on an appointment only basis.

An Important disclaimer! The information provided on this page is not legal advice.
Transmission of this information is not intended to create, and receipt by you does not constitute, an attorney-client relationship. Readers must not act upon any information without first seeking advice from a
qualified attorney. Send Correspondence and articles to editor@ilw.com. Letters and articles may be edited and may be published and otherwise used in any medium. Opinions expressed in letters and articles do not necessarily reflect the opinion of ILW.COM.